OVERCHARGING AT AREA STORES HAS INCREASED

Agricultural/Standards Inspector Claudia Verdugo of the San Diego County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures examines a supermarket’s prices Feb. 27, 2012. During 2011, the county’s inspectors found cash register pricing errors were four times as likely to result in an overcharge than an undercharge. Courtesy of Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures.

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Agricultural/Standards Inspector Claudia Verdugo of the San Diego County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures examines a supermarket’s prices Feb. 27, 2012. During 2011, the county’s inspectors found cash register pricing errors were four times as likely to result in an overcharge than an undercharge. Courtesy of Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures.

County price-check crews found 2 percent of items purchased at local stores in 2011 rang up higher than they were supposed to, up from 1.7 percent the year before.

Inspectors visited 1,300 locations and randomly selected 20,000 items to see if the lowest advertised, posted or quoted price scanned correctly. Eighteen percent of stores visited by the inspectors had overcharging errors.

Not only were overcharges up, but undercharges were down. Last year, 0.5 percent of items were undercharged. That’s down from 0.7 percent in 2010.

Supervising Inspector Nancy Appel said the department has received more complaints from shoppers since 2008, when the economy entered the recession.

County inspectors in the Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures aim to visit all of the county’s more than 3,500 retail stores with price scanners every 3 years and 4 months. Retailers that overcharge for an item can be fined $100 to $1,000, depending on the amount of the overcharge and number of items.

Retailers may also have to pay for a re-inspection within six months of a violation, and that re-inspection can lead to larger fines.

Last year, the county imposed nearly $58,000 in fines.

Appel said the county is currently assisting in a handful of civil investigations, and closed three cases last year.

On March 21, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris’s office announced Walmart would pay $2.1 million for failing to stop overcharging at its locations after a 2008 judgment.

Under the settlement, Wal-Mart is required to take $3 off the lowest advertised or posted price for any item that gets overcharged or give the item away for free if its correct price is less than $3. The requirement extends through November 2013.

The company said it strives for 100 percent pricing accuracy.

Department Assistant Director Sandy Parks said sale-priced items are some of the most common items to be overcharged at registers, because sometimes the registers are not updated to reflect the new price.

“We recommend taking the sales ad with you so that you can show the cashier what the price should be in case of a dispute, watching as they ring you up and checking your receipts afterward while still in the store to make sure you were charged the correct price,” Parks said.

Since March 2009, two San Diego County stores have been fined five times, the most frequent in the county during that period of time.

One Arco convenience store on North Melrose Drive in Oceanside was fined $1,050 for its five violations. The other location, a Vons grocery store on Avocado Boulevard in La Mesa, was fined $600 for the five violations.

At the Arco, as an example, the inspector was charged $5.98 for one Mike’s Harder Punch and one Four Loko beverage — items that were on sale for two for $5. At the Vons, an inspector was charged $1.59 for a four-pack of Hunt’s Snack Pudding sale-priced at $1.

A spokesman for Arco parent BP, Scott Dean, said the independent franchisees who own and operate the Arco convenience stores sell a range of items that frequently change in availability and price.

“These changes can sometimes lead to pricing discrepancies between the cash register and posted price,” Dean said. “These discrepancies can be corrected on-the-spot by the store operator.”

A Vons spokesman, Gilbert Gonzales, said the company has strict pricing policies and procedures in place that have served customers well over the years.

“We take price accuracy very seriously and have remedied this issue at this store,” Gonzales said.

Parks said overcharge amounts vary with each inspection, but more than 70 percent of the stores with overcharges are caught with a total overcharge of more than 25 cents. Some overcharges are much higher, Parks said.

“We once found an overcharge of $60 on a pillow,” Parks said.

“Of course, human errors can and will occur with pricing regardless of the size of the store,” Parks said. “We only expect that the store honors the lowest posted, quoted or advertised price, as required by law.”